PEOPLExpress is Gone

The last time we heard from PEOPLExpress on their plans to fly again was one year ago.   A year later, I am definitely calling it. People’s Express has permanently putted out. Despite a cheery New Year’s message on Facebook (see below), nothing of substance has resulted in the airline flying again. For those of you who have forgotten… The original PeopleExpress went out of business in 1987, despite taking advantage of US air deregulation to become the fifth largest airline in the USA by offering ultra low fares which the staff collected on the plane.…

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2015 CAPA Aviation Awards in Helsinki

Airline Finnair received their brand new Airbus A350 in time to show it off at this year’s CAPA 2015 World Aviation Summit in Helsinki, Finland. Presentations and discussions at the event organised by CAPA (Centre for Aviation) addressed Open skies, Subsidies, Ownership, Alliances, Distribution and Productivity. In the midst of the event were announcements for CAPA’s 2015 Aviation awards: Ethiopian – Airline of the Year for their leadership in the African market. IndiGo – CAPA Low Cost Airline of the Year Qantas -the CAPA Airline Turnaround of the Year Qantas CEO Alan Joyce named CAPA Airline Chief Executive of…

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United opens up to hear from us

United is the airline, I love to hate. And I am not alone. Their on-time arrival performance declined  in 2014 while their mishandled baggage rate increased. The airline had a higher customer complaint rate in 2014 compared to 2.14  in 2013. Brent D. Bowen and Headley in their 2015 Airline Quality Ratings gave them ninth place out of 12 US carriers. Skytrax customers have given them a 3/10 rating. Since new CEO, Oscar Munoz took over in dramatic circumstances, just three weeks ago, he has been reaching out to try and change the airline. He has…

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Where to credit air miles

Booked your ticket and airline and trying to work out which Frequent Flyer program will get the most miles. It can be useful if you are planning a one off trip or thinking through your mileage earn for the next 12 months. Where to credit is a handy way to find out that your First Class ticket will get you 130%  of miles with one airline and 300%  with another. Or my Malaysia airways discount economy ticket will get me 25% of the miles with Malaysia and 0% with any other carrier. It is very simple…

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Most amazing fireworks in the world

Where would you go for an amazing fireworks display? New York? Sydney? Dubai? To my surprise, I found it is actually in a small town of just 482 people called Gunning. Located in a rural area, 260 km (160 miles) south-west of Sydney, Australia. Why? Firework’s Australia the country’s largest firework’s distributor and organiser has two factories in the area and every year they organise the Gunning Fireworks Festival to demonstrate their newest and best bangs and colours. I went along for this year’s Festival last Saturday night and for almost two hours, small and large shells, rockets and mortars were…

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Petition demands air passenger protections

Sick of it all? Crammed seats, delays, fees and poor customer responses to problems? FlyersRights who claim to be the Largest Non-Profit Airline Consumer Organization, have launched a petition calling for the US government to draft public law to require: passenger protection from tarmac delays of three hours plus minimum seat pitch standards airline acceptance of FAA-certified child seats transparency of unbundled fees contingency plans for long delays including food stocks response to complaints within seven days and resolution within ten  Airlines For America responded saying “We…believe that government should not regulate airline seat sizes, but instead…

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Rainbow for September 11

Rainbow emerging from World Trade in lower Manhattan taken on 10th September 2015 by Queens resident Ben Sturner. Fourteen years later, I think of the day that changed so much of our world when almost 3000 people from over 60 countries were directly killed as a result of the hijacking of those four aircraft. I want to take a positive from the rainbow. I pray we can find a way to bring peace this year. My thoughts to you on this day.

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USA has most flight departures-still

Last year, there were almost ten million take offs of US registered airlines across the country (9,745,498 to be exact). This is just over a quarter of all of the takeoffs across the world. It is a staggering thought to think this averages to a takeoff every four seconds across the USA! The country has four of the top ten busiest airports in the world: Atlanta, LAX, and Chicago O’hare and Dallas-Fort Worth. This is a reduction of about half a million takeoffs from 2013, the fourth year the number of takeoffs has declined in the USA. There…

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